I Made Us Matching Avatars, But He Protected Another Girl Chapter 08

I Made Us Matching Avatars, But He Protected Another Girl Chapter 08

For nights on end, Nate parked outside my parents’ house without fail.

He never came up. He never called and demanded I come down. He just sat there, waiting, patient as stone.

He seemed to believe that patience alone would eventually win me back.

What it won him instead was the news that Ryan and I were engaged.

The day I posted our engagement, my phone practically melted from the notifications.

Former coworkers were stunned. Even my closest friends couldn’t wrap their heads around it.

“Are you seriously okay with this? You and Nate broke up barely a month ago and you’re already engaged to someone else? Claire, isn’t this moving a little fast?”

“Don’t let the heartbreak cloud your judgment, Claire. Think this through.”

“How could you possibly walk away from someone you loved for five whole years?”

I smiled faintly and took a sip of my coffee.

“Nothing impossible about it. Five years is a long time to be tired.”

“I don’t buy that for a second. Are you trying to get back at Nate? I’m going to go talk some sense into him.”

I grabbed my furious friend’s arm before she could storm off, offering her a tired, helpless smile.

“With Nate, I always came last, no matter what.”

“There was room in his heart for the company, for Lily, for playing it perfectly logical. And somewhere at the very bottom of that list, there was me. Ryan’s different. He never once forgot about me all those years

overseas. He loves me. He treats me well.”

“Being with Ryan feels easy. Comfortable. But with Nate, it always felt like I was the only one running to keep up, the only one bending myself into a shape that fit his life. Honestly? Even without Lily in the picture, Nate

and I were never going to make it.”

I knew myself well enough by now.

I’d never wanted a relationship where I was the only one giving.

I was never a cold person, not really.

My life needed flowers in it. It needed a little silliness, someone willing to be playful with me, and love. Real

love, in generous amounts.

Roses wither without water.

And I couldn’t keep contorting myself around Nate forever.

However you sliced it, the truth was simple: we were never right for each other.

When I finished, my friend went quiet for a long moment, her eyes glassy with something like grief.

“You’ve changed, Claire.”

“But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. At least you won’t keep getting hurt over love anymore. I’m with you on this.”

I scrolled through the avalanche of messages flooding my phone and answered a handful from the people who actually mattered to me.

Most of them still couldn’t believe Nate and I had really split.

Even fewer believed I’d get engaged again less than a month later.

News reached Nate sometime that afternoon.

For the first time in his life, he walked out of work without a word. By the time he found me, I was standing in

a bridal shop, halfway through a fitting.

He burst through the door just as I stepped out in a full gown, and he stopped cold.

His eyes went visibly red, his hand trembling at his side.

“Claire.” His voice came out rough, unsteady.

Before I could get a word out, he grabbed my wrist, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

“This isn’t real. Tell me this isn’t real.”

“Let’s go get married right now. Right this second, let’s go file the paperwork. You wanted a wedding, didn’t

you? Let’s throw the biggest wedding this city has ever seen. Please, Claire.”

“I was wrong. I was so wrong about everything.”

“I never once thought about how you felt. I was arrogant, and this is all my fault.”

“Lily is my best friend’s little sister. He died saving my life, and the last thing he ever asked of me was to look.

after her. I swear to you, she has only ever been a sister to me.”

“Please, Claire. Don’t do this. Don’t leave me.”